Kellyanne Conway Says Trump Resistance Is Hurting America

Kellyanne Conway didn’t like the pink pussy hats that protestors of Donald Trump and his administration donned at women’s marches across the country the day after his inauguration. The sartorial symbol of resistance to Trump’s brash, sexist remarks during his presidential campaign and to the policies on reproductive rights he and Mike Pence have espoused, however, seems like just a sweet nuisance in Conway’s memory compared to what she called on Tuesday the Democrats’ obstructionism. It’s hurting the president’s agenda, she said, and America.

“It’s also time to shine a brighter light, a hotter light on the Democratic obstructionism and resistance. It’s no longer a bumper sticker or a bunch of pink hats,” Conway told FOX Business’s Lou Dobbs on Tuesday. “It’s hurting people in this country.”

“I am very hopeful that the American people can see exactly what the Democrats are up to here, which is they don’t want to come to the table on anything,” she added. “Let’s show which party really means progress and campaign promise fulfillment and solutions.”

White House Counselor Kellyanne Conway told FOX Business's Lou Dobbs that Trump resistance and Democrats' obstruction is harming America. Here she attends a health care listening session at the White House on June 5. Joshua Roberts/Reuters

The counselor to the president blamed the resistance to Trump’s agenda for the failure of Congress to get things done. Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell, in his announcement that he would delay the start of the Senate’s upcoming recess by two weeks, also pointed at the Democrats. He said in a statement that the extra time was needed “in order to provide more time to complete action on important legislative items and process nominees that have been stalled by a lack of cooperation from our friends across the aisle.”

Conway welcomed the decision. “The holding back of the two weeks recess is a great start to get things done and to show that these Democrats who are obstructing think they are raising money off of it and they are worried about who’s going to run in 2020; it’s nonsense,” Conway said. “They are going to have to look their constituents in the eye and say ‘we failed on health care [and] we failed on tax reform.'"

She ticked off all the things Republicans should accomplish in the face of the Democrats’ supposed obstructionism—including repealing Obamacare, getting the wall built, passing “Kate’s Law” on sanctuary cities, finishing the budget and getting to tax reform—but wouldn’t concede that the Republicans shared the fault for failing to move forward on the president’s agenda.

It's not the first time she's called Democrats obstructionists. "The Democrats, now they basically say the word 'Russia' more than they say 'America.' They are obsessive about this," Conway said on Fox & Friends in June. "They are obstructionists, and they're going to have to go home and face their constituents at some point."

But Dobbs—who accused Conway of filibustering him during their interview (she said she wasn’t, that they are “allies”)—pushed back hard on the idea that Democrats alone were to blame.

“The Republican leadership that has the brains, the ingenuity and the guts to hold the obstructionist Dems to account and move ahead despite them.…” Dobbs said. “We’re not seeing that from Ryan, we’re not seeing that from McConnell, there’s no toughness, there’s no intelligence and there is very little beyond pure flaccidity on the part of the Republican leadership in the face of obstructionism. It’s time to make something happen, isn’t it?”